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Ken Livingstone has made the wild claim that Jewish News opposes his expulsion from the Labour Party.

In an explosive radio interview on Tuesday, the former London mayor stated a blog post published on the Jewish News website last week backed his claim that the publication opposed his dismissal.

The post, entitled ‘Kicking out Ken Livingstone for Hitler remark would be a bad mistake’, was written by blogger and barrister David Wolchover.

Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer said: “This emphasises how deluded the poor man has become. We publish all manner of online blogs with all manner of perspectives. After all, two Jews, three opinions. These are clearly individual views and not the editorial line of the newspaper, which has staunchly and repeatedly led calls for Livingstone’s expulsion.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Livingstone had appeared on BBC News, waving a printed copy of the web column.

And he later told Iain Dale on LBC radio: “If you look at last week’s edition of the Jewish News, there’s an article in there that says ‘Ken shouldn’t be expelled. The article explains I have been misquoted by my critics. It goes on to say that, one what I said was true, and thanks me at the end for reminding people about the Holocaust, because a lot of kids are growing up not knowing about it.”

Host of the show Iain Dale said he has a number of Jewish friends considering leaving the party as a result of the decision not to expel Livingstone. He asked the former mayor of London how he felt, to which Livingstone again replied: “Ask them to look at last week’s issue of the Jewish News. And ask them to check whether what I said is true or not.